Today I spoke with Olive Wexler ‘20, a publishing scout with Barbara Tolley and Associates based in New York City. While at Wesleyan, she double-majored in English and theatre before moving to New York to pursue a job in publishing. On-campus, Olive also took many French courses but avoided triple-majoring/minoring due to the General Education requirements. I chose to speak with her because her fields of work is fascinating and her academic field of study is adjacent to mine.
During a summer internship in the publishing industry, Olive became interested in the field enough to pursue it after graduating from Wesleyan. As a literary scout with Barbara Tolley and Associates, Olive receives books, reads them, and then recommends them to international clients. Her job includes a significant amount of reading but also some traveling and interaction with other professionals across other cultures. Recently, Olive visited Frankfurt for a large book convention and this coming March she will travel to Bolonga, Italy for another book convention.
Regarding the intricacies of the industry, Olive provided a balanced account. She has a significant amount of positive comments. First, the work is entertaining and generally rewarding. For someone who loves reading, writing, and critical literary analysis, it’s a dream. However, in additions to these positive qualities, real negatives as well. First, the job is demanding of your time. Compared to the standard 40-hour work week, Olive works closer to 60-hours per week. She shared that she works from 10am-6pm, takes an hour for dinner, and then reads from 8-10pm before going to sleep. In addition, to longer hours the work is not compensated very well (this field isn’t known for its high pay).
At the end, Olive also shared a few pieces of career advice and post-graduate advice. To begin, she recommended making a list of the values and characteristics that you think that you’re looking for in a company, job, or industry. This was also advice conveyed in the professional development course that I recently took on LinkedIn. Second, she shared that messaging other Wesleyan alums and companies or recruiters via LinkedIn during the junior summer to find post-graduate jobs. I really enjoyed speaking with her because the warmth, proactivity, and dedication of the Wesleyan alumni community shined through.
